My fiancé Erin suffers from a chronic condition known as Crohn's Disease, which I am told wreaks havoc with the digestive system. She's pointed me to a website http://www.ccfa.org with information on the disease and I am trying to learn more since I'll be having to not only live with this but most likely take care of her if anything happens. Does anyone know anything about this disease or what I should know to be a good caretaker for her?

Generally speaking, the more people talk about "being saved," the further away they actually are from true salvation.

From what I know Crohn's disease is one of the least understood diseases among the ones so common. We think it is autoimmune, but don't really know. Think it is tied to genetics, but don't really know how. I remember reading somewhere that smokers get it more often. Also, from what I know there is no known surgery or drug that can cure it, because we really don't know what the heck is going on. The medication is only used to keep the symptoms under control. So the only things you can do is follow your doctor's advice: if she smokes she should really consider quitting, never forget to take her medication and follow the diet the doctor recommends. While i don't know the specifics, I can tell you from experience in my family that it makes a huge difference if you stop eating(around her) things that she is not supposed to eat. Again, i don't know what diet Crohn's disease patients have, but I am guessing it is pretty strict. You could also look into herbal supplements and such. 99% of the time those don't really help beyond a placebo, but they can't heart anyway.

"As a biologist, I firmly believe that when you're dead, you're dead. Except for what you live behind in history. That's the only afterlife" - J. Craig Venter

Crohn's disease, a type of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), is a condition in which the lining of your digestive tract becomes inflamed, causing severe diarrhea and abdominal pain. The inflammation often spreads deep into the layers of affected tissue. Like ulcerative colitis, peptic ulcers, another common IBD, Crohn's disease caused otalgia.

Thank God she doesn't smoke, and she's as much of a health nut as I am when it comes to her diet. She does have a problem with not always taking her medicine, as well as with getting up in time for school. I'm not sure if it's her disease or her medicine that makes her need so much sleep. I'll have to remember to remind her to both take her medicine and go to bed at a reasonable hour. I think I might actually be a contributing factor on that second problem, though.

Generally speaking, the more people talk about "being saved," the further away they actually are from true salvation.

As far as taking care of the person, the best you can do is what I've done for someone else with crohn's. I've had crohn's for 8 years. I've found humira and my life changed. I've even started a blog to keep people informed:http://crohnsdiseasediagnosis.blogspot.com/